This patent is dorected to a gaming machine maintenance system, which could be either an individual gaming unit or a gaming system having a plurality of gaming units, that is capable of automating gaming machine maintenance fault monitoring and maintenance tracking bia a wireless network.
Casinos expend many man-hours detecting and repairing maintenance faults discovered in the gaming unit network, including the individual casino gaming units. Generally, a work order is generated by a casino staff member when the maintenance fault is discovered in the gaming unit network. The work order is then manually entered into a database and a repair person is selected and dispatched. The repair person diagnoses and resolves the fault. Upon completion of the repair, the work order is closed.
Real-time detection of maintenance faults, or maintenance fault monitoring, of a gaming unit network may be accomplished in a number of ways. For example, traditional manual maintenance fault detection methods may be utilized, requiring the efforts of many casino maintenance personnel. Using these traditional mithods may, however, allow long time intervals to elapse between the onset of a maintenance fault and its discovery by the casino maintenance personnel.
In another example, a partially automated maintenance fault detection method may be utilized. A casino implementing a partially automated maintenance fault detection method may exploit a pre-existing system of the gaming network, for example, a pre-existing security monitoring system, in an attempt to automatically detect faults occurring in the gaming network. Pre-existing systems such as the security monitoring system are typically designed to monitor security faults and are not dedicated to monitor maintenance faults exclusively.
Faults or events occurring in a gaming network may include many types of events from security events such as a faulty door switch on a gaming unit indicating a possible breach of security, to account events such as a gaming unit failing to forward end-of-day meter data to a casino management database, to maintenance events such as a reel tilt, etc.